With the evolution of iOS it’s dawned on me seeing people comment they they’re waiting for a tablet with a “fully fledged” OS, that iOS is in fact it.

Many will argue without Flash support iOS can’t claim to be fully fledged. I don’t personally believe this is a necessary criteria though. When you look at what the iPad is capable of, you begin to realise that the glove that is iOS fits the hand.

Obviously what people are talking about is shoehorning a PC OS like Windows or Linux onto a tablet. There are tablets available now that run Windows 7, and no doubt tablets that run Linux.
Of those I’ve seen, they are an utter fail. Windows is an OS that’s designed to run on as many different devices as possible. Jack of all trades and master of none springs to mind. Vast amounts of the code aren’t required to run on a tablet.

As everything is becoming more wireless, the need to plug things in is diminishing. iOS5 and iCloud illustrate that theme. As it is, being able to buy an app on my Mac, and find it on my iPhone and iPad when I next use them is a Godsend. With photo sharing services like Flickr and Instagram, the need to plug my iPhone in at all is further diminished. With the camera adapter kit for the iPad, I can even pull photos from my digital camera.

With a Bluetooth keyboard and iPad, you really start to appreciate the functionality of iOS. All the keys like Tab, volume control and pasteboard all work. With a keyboard you can also do serious document editing. This is entering the realm of “fully fledged” OS.

Perhaps the only weakness is the ability to download files. The necessity to do so on the iOS platform is vastly diminished. However, push come to shove, with the likes of Mercury Browser for iOS, you can even download files if you wish.

I imagine in 5 years time this will be one of those really dated posts when people look back and think, “How could they have thought iOS wasn’t fully fledged?” As in, why was anyone even debating it.
It’s likely to be the case that the lines between OSX and iOS may be near indistinguishable. As different as iOS for the iPad is from iOS on the iPhone. They have device specific differences, but for the most part, are the same OS. I don’t find it difficult to imagine OSX and iOS merging so much, the same goes for all Apple devices.

Have your say on this topic here: http://ozmacuser.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=199

This entry was posted on July 18, 2011 at 6:45 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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